Background: Directly observed therapy-short course (DOTS) had been adopted by World Health Organization (WHO) as hopeful strategy for treatment of tuberculosis (TB) since early nineties. Iraqi health authorities started DOTS implementation since 2001 in Baghdad. Coverage expanded gradually till 100% in 2004. War and unstable security condition hit Iraq since March 2003. Objective: The objective of this study was To evaluate the DOTS implementation program in Baghdad in different periods including 2 unstable periods for proper assessment of war and instability on treatment of TB. Patients and methods: This study had been conducted in Baghdad during four different periods (before and during 2003 war, after war; without and with DOTS). Direct interview with patients, and follow up of their treatment were done. Results: The results reveled that78% of patients were in active age groups, 62% of them were males. Surprisingly, direct observation was not achieved in those who were treated under DOTS in the whole periods. Patients treated under DOTS in the 1st and 4th periods showed much better sputum conversion rate after 2 month treatment (88.7 %in 1st and86.5% in 4th periods` patients) than those treated under DOTS during war (45.9% or Non-DOTS 75.6%). A better cure rate also found in patients of both periods (64.9% in 1st and 63% in 4th period) than patients in other periods ( 11% in 2nd% and 43.6% in the 3rd one) .Conclusions: DOTS strategy played important role in improving registration and curing of TB cases in Baghdad. War and unstable security conditions got a destructive effect on treatment of TB patients regardless the followed strategy. Involvement of private medical sector and other governmental and nongovernmental organization can improve TB treatment outcome.
Expansive soil spreads in Iraq and some countries of the world. But there are many problems can be occurred to the structures that built on, so we must study the characteristics of these soils due to the problems that may be caused to these structures which built on these kinds of soil and then study the methods of treatment. The present study focuses on improving the geotechnical properties of expansive soils by treating it Metakaolin(M). Metakaolin (M) has never been used before as an improvement material for stabilizing the expansive soil . Metakaolin is a pozzolanic material. It’s obtained by calcination of kaolinite clay at temperatures from 700°C to 800°C. Kaolin chemical composition is
... Show MoreThe filler in the asphalt mixture is essential since it plays a significant role in toughening and stiffening the asphalt. Changes in filler type can lead the asphalt mixtures to perform satisfactorily during their design life or degrade rapidly when traffic and environmental effects are considered. This study aims to assess the impact of filler types such as limestone dust (LS) and hydrated lime (HL) on Marshall characteristics and moisture damage in asphalt mixtures. Three different percentages of HL were employed in this study to partially replace the LS mineral filler: 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5% by aggregate weight. Furthermore, a control mixture was created with 7% LS by overall aggregate weight for the wearing course layer. The Marsha
... Show MoreConstruction joints are stopping places in the process of placing concrete, and they are required because in many structures it is impractical to place concrete in one continuous operation. The amount of concrete that can be placed at one time is governed by the batching and mixing capacity and by the strength of the formwork. A good construction joint should provide adequate flexural and shear continuity through the interface.
In this study, the effect of location of construction joints on the performance of reinforced concrete structural elements is experimentally investigated.
Nineteen beam specimens with dimensions of 200×200×950 mm were tested. The variables investigated are the location of the construction joints
... Show MoreTo assess the effects of dietary oil sources on productive and reproductive traits, sunflower oil, flax oil, corn oil, or fish oil were induced in quail diets. One hundred and sixty-eight 7-week-old Japanese quail were randomly assigned to 4 groups (12 males and 30 females each) with 3 replicates per group containing 4 males and 10 females each and fed for 13 weeks (including one week as an adaptation period) on a commercial diet supplemented with 3% of sunflower oil (T1), flax oil (T2), corn oil (T3), or fish oil (T4). The birds received water and were fed ad libitum during the study. The results of the experiment revealed that dietary supplementation with different sources of oil had no significant effect on male body weight, female body
... Show MoreIn this work, HgBa2CaCu2-xSbxO8+δ compounds with (x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8) have been prepared by the solid-state reaction method. Structural, morphological, and electrical properties were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) techniques. Using the 4-probe technique to study the effect of antimony-substitution for Copper on the electrical properties of HgBa2CaCu2-xSbxO8+δ (Hg-1212) phase was investigated by measuring the resistivity as a function of temperature. Results indicate that the addition of antimony (Sb) increases the volume fraction of the phase and changes the superconducting transition temperature Tc of the superconductor to a normal state. The dielectric loss factor and ac
... Show MoreThe present study aimed to investigate effect of Pregabalin (PGB) on ovary tissue and number of follicles in female albino rats. Three groups of healthy adult female albino rats, fifteen rats in each group were used in current study. The rats of groups, G2 and G3 were administered orally with two doses 150 mg and 300mg/kg b.wt/day of pregabalin, respectively. The doses were given daily for 1 month, 2 months, and 3 months. Animals of group G1 (Control) were given saline alone. After the experimental periods, the rats were sacrificed and the isolated ovaries were histologically examined. The results of histological analysis of the ovaries in treated rats (G2, and G3) showed a significant (P≤0.05) decrease in the number of preantral, antral,
... Show MoreThe rheological and fusion behavior of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) compounds plays a dominant role in
the processing operations and in the development of physical properties in the processed material. A
comprehensive study was made in this work to evaluate the effect of shear and thermal history on stability, mechanical and rheological properties of rigid PVC compounds. Different samples of Rigid Poly vinyl chloride including dry blend powder, granules, and bottles molded from both were examined. A study was also made on recycled RPVC where 25% of reclaimed material was continuously blended with fresh dry blend and processed for 15 cycles. Results showed that compaction of the PVC material took place in the brabender plastograph at co
Research in Iraq has expanded in the field of material technology involving the properties of the lightweight concrete using natural aggregate. The use of the porcelinate aggregate in the production of structural light concrete has a wide objective
and requires a lot of research to become suitable for practical application. In this work metakaolin was used to improve compressive strength of lightweight porcelinate concrete which usually have a low compressive strength about 17 MPa . The effect of metakaolin on compressive, splitting tensile, flexure strengths and modulus of elasticity of lightweight porcelinate concrete have been investigated. Many experiments were carried out by replacing cement with different percentages of
met
Moisture induced damage can cause a progressive deterioration in the performance of asphalt pavement by the loss of adhesion between asphalt binder and aggregate surface and/or loss of cohesion within the binder in the presence of water. The objective of this paper is to improve the asphalt mixtures resistance to moisture by using hydrated lime as an anti-stripping additive. For this purpose, two types of asphalt binder were utilized; asphalt grades (40-50) and (60-70) with one type of aggregate of 19.0 mm aggregate nominal maximum size, and limestone dust as a mineral filler. Marshall method was adopted to find the optimum asphalt content. Essentially, two parameters were determined to evaluate the moisture susceptibili
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